Goodbye, IGN

I’m not really sure where to start or how to do this, so let me just dive into it. After all, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for nearly a decade. So here goes...

Today is my last day in the IGN ofﬁce.

This weekend I will complete my last trip for IGN.

After Sunday, I will no longer be an Executive Editor.

... It’s strange to type that.

Just some guy with a hat on the Internet... doing an awkward pose the E3 photographer wanted.

Honestly, there is a part of me still trying to understand that my tenure with this outlet - one that I avidly read in high school - is coming to an end. I’ve spent nearly a third of my life contributing and writing for IGN. I’m saying goodbye to something that has come to deﬁne so much of my life, something that has taught me so much.

Truthfully, I’m just an introverted kid at heart who dreamed big when he was younger. I wanted to work with comics. I wanted to work with video games. I wanted to meet the people that sparked my imagination so vividly, so passionately. As an only kid, I found myself with my books and my movies and my games more often than not. Creators like Stan Lee and Shigeru Miyamoto were more than just the guys that created my favorite hobbies, they created entire worlds around me. Worlds that meant everything to me. That deﬁned me.

Bringing Nintendo news... DIRECT to you.

I’ll let you in on a secret - I never really tried to work at IGN in the ﬁrst place. I read the site as a teenager, but working there was quite the accident. And in the decade that followed, I not only learned how happy of an accident this would turn out to be, but how much the smallest events can change an entire life for the better.

I didn’t major in journalism. I technically didn’t even formally apply for a position here. In most respects I was the right guy at the right time with the right perspective and expertise. I was on the IGN boards the day Hilary Goldstein asked for help forming what would become IGN Comics. I needed an internship at the right time. I graduated college, and shortly after Chris Carle needed an full-time Comics editor. I happened to ask Hil to help his team with more games when he was in need of an Executive Editor for IGN Nintendo. I happened to run across a rookie editor named Audrey Drake when she needed an assignment - and I had assignments to give. Right time. Right place. Right person.

It is impossible for me to describe how lucky I have been. How fortunate I have been. How IGN has given me so many opportunities and opened so many doors - not only to meet my heroes, and provide my perspective on so many incredible products, but to shape my future and create a path for myself in a very competitive world. This is my family. It will always be my family.

The best - and craziest - job a guy could stumble upon.

But like all families, sometimes you have to move away. I’ve always had one eye on the horizon, but increasingly I’ve looked towards it, to see what might wait for me in the distance. There’s no one reason my focus changed. In truth, there are many. But IGN taught me over the years to be ambitious, to raise the stakes, always pursue the seemingly unobtainable and to always - always - live life to its fullest. To that end, I am moving to that next big challenge in my life. Perhaps it’s only ﬁtting that I take my voice and perspective on Nintendo and reshape it from being in a public arena to something that can make an impact behind the scenes. As of Monday, I will be a Senior Manager at GolinHarris, Nintendo’s long-time partner in communications and PR.

Before I go, I wanted to say one thing to every last one of you out there - those of you reading this or passing along this message to your friends, on IGN or elsewhere... I know that for the vast majority of you, I’m just a guy on the Internet who writes some stuff. Maybe you know a few things I’ve written. In all likelihood you’ll never know the extent of what I touched or inﬂuenced at IGN. Sometimes you’re too excited by the news or review to notice. Sometimes, honestly, the article (or video) carries another name, the sign of the teamwork and camaraderie that exists with IGN’s editorial team. But for some of you, I’m perhaps a bit more. That unknown friend on the other end of a digital space that likes to talk about the things that you like to talk about. That guy that loves video games like you do. That understands how they shape your life.

... Nerds.

There’s a funny sort of twist on this that I think escapes many of you, because in truth, all you know is that guy on camera doing an unboxing, or the guy on the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast. Despite anything my work might mean (or not mean) to any of you, what IGN - and its readers - have meant to me is immeasurable. It has changed the life of some introverted, nerdy kid that really didn’t understand where he was headed in life. You let me discover something I never knew I’d love so much. Day after day, month after month, year after year... you found my perspective and my work interesting on some level. And it was that dynamic I fell in love with. I loved that interaction and that discussion. I loved it so much that no matter the immense work or sacriﬁce needed, I gladly did it.

To my very core, I have loved this job, and the interactions it brought me. More important to me than my own voice was yours - your thoughts, experiences and connections with video games and comics. To be honest, my IGN family wasn’t just the editors and producers in the ofﬁce with me - but all of you.

I’ll never be able to thank you enough.

For the last time - -

Keep it cool, Koopalings.

Richard George

Executive Editor, IGN.com

PS. Two more things - my Twitter account is being renamed 'GCNStorm' as of today. Just in case you're wondering where 'RichIGN' went - and I'm happy to chat about anything outside Nintendo-related topics! Also, though this weekend marks my final hours at IGN, you'll likely see a few articles, plus an Assassin's Creed IV documentary, in the days and weeks ahead. Every now and then I actually managed to get my work done ahead of deadline!